Yaqub ibn Killis

Ya'qub ibn Yusuf ibn Killis (Arabic: يعقوب ابن كليس‎‎), (930 in Baghdad – 991) was a high-ranking official of the Ikhshidids who went on to serve as vizier under the Fatimids from 979 until his death in 991).

Ya'qub ibn Yusuf ibn Killis was born in Baghdad in 930 in a Jewish family. After his family moved to Syria he came to Egypt in 943 and entered the service of the Regent Kafur. Soon he controlled the Egyptian state finances in his capacity as household and property administrator. Although he converted to Islam in 967, he fell out of favour with the successors of Kafur and was imprisoned. He was able however to purchase his freedom and went to Ifriqiya, where he put himself at the service of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mu'izz.

After the Fatimid conquest of 969, Ibn Killis returned to Egypt and was put in charge of the economy, where he was able to regularise the state finances. After the dismissal of Jawhar as-Siqilli in 979 Ya'qub ibn Killis was appointed vizier by al-Aziz, a position he held until his death in 991. He was a patron of culture and science.

Abu al-Farj Ya'qub ibn Yusuf, known as Ibn Killis, was born of an honorable family of Baghdad. By birth he was a Jew, born in 930. At a young age he came with his father to Egypt, where he started his political life at the court of Kafur, the power behind the throne of the Ikhshidid regime. He was very intelligent, hard working and honest. Very soon he secured an important position in the court of Kafur as an expert in economics. In 967, he embraced Islam, by which Kafur was highly pleased and appointed him as his courtier. This aroused the jealousy of his rival, the vizier Ibn al-Furat, who began to seek a way to eliminate him.

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